I hear of women in my community and across the world either having stillbirths or dying during the process of birth all the time. Why?
How can a dog or a cow give birth in the dirt and turn out fine, but if humans did the same, the mom/infant have a higher chance of dying? How can baby mice, who are similar to human babies (naked, gross, blind), survive the “newborn phase”?
And why are babies so big but useless? I understand that babies have evolved to have a soft skull to accommodate their big brain, but why don’t they have the strength to keep their head up?
In: Biology
Childbirth is min-maxxed for large brains in humans.
Nature found the balance between “dies in child birth” and “is smart enough to manipulate the environment” and ran with it.
So we are very smart, but sometimes women die in child birth. However, the benefit from group coordination, environmental manipulation, planning, etc is greater than the cost, so we are wildly successful.
Humans evolved as a social, intelligent species that necessitated long endurance and extremely powerful legs. You can likely run longer than nearly any other animal on the planet, albeit probably not as fast as them. To accommodate an extremely large brain, human heads had to grow significantly. This is in direct competition with the optimizations of a pelvis for efficient walking. Babies need to be cared for because they come out underdeveloped compared to other species, but at the maximally sustainable time frame to reduce maternal mortality to a rate effective enough for survival. The fact that we are social creatures did not do any favors for selecting strongly against mothers with complications in pre-history either. Human tribes likely would care for and assist any mother struggling to recover because that’s just what we do (not doing that likely strikes you as deeply offensive because of course it will). But this simultaneously means alleviating pressures that might have self selected over hundreds of generations for less severe child birth. We don’t know how many women would die in childbirth in pre-history, but it was certainly higher than other mammals.
In modern times, there are other serious problems that make child birth dangerous. The silver lining for pre historic women is that none of them likely had high blood pressure, obesity, and developing heart failure when they gave birth. But that’s a very common list of metabolic issues in people today with excess food and reduced exercise. On top of that, there is intensely debated efficacy on the effectiveness of treating pregnancy as a medical condition and having doctors involved BEFORE any problems arise, as it has been shown that medical interference can often complicate otherwise uncomplicated pregnancies. On the other hand, not having medical staff immediately available if something does go horribly wrong would also be a disaster, so how best to use modern tooling to reduce mortality is still a somewhat contentious topic
Because I didn’t see it much yet (I didn’t read all the comments but went a ways down) medical techniques that are not exactly pro-female during birth contribute to this.
The birthing positions and some practices are male driven for their satisfaction. Specifically the position of birthing on our backs. The history of that is creepy and disturbing and tied to male sexual gratification.
It definitely complicates an already complicated moment with the whole giant head issue for birthing.
Then with C sections and a lot of professionals being too fast with the incisions or clean up and that leads to a host of hospital acquired infections, bleed outs, etc.
I’m not a obstrician but I did do some medical courses for my degree and it’s what I gathered from research projects, and peer support during courses. I work in the funeral industry so I have to understand these types situations of losses for understanding grief.
There’s a song called Pure Comedy by Father John Misty that sums it up pretty good:
The comedy of man starts like this
Our brains are way too big for our mothers’ hips
And so Nature, she divines this alternative
We emerged half-formed and hope that whoever greets us on the other end
Is kind enough to fill us in
And, babies, that’s pretty much how it’s been ever since
Now the miracle of birth leaves a few issues to address
Like, say, that half of us are periodically iron deficient
So somebody’s got to go kill something while I look after the kids
I’d do it myself, but what, are you going to get this thing its milk?
He says as soon as he gets back from the hunt, we can switch
It’s hard not to fall in love with something so helpless
Ladies, I hope we don’t end up regretting this
Evolution is a C- student.
Does the animal survive? Good enough!
Childbirth was the leading cause of death for women for thousands of years due to complications like bleeding or bacterial infection. This is mainly due to the size of the human head and our upright posture.
Today in America its about 32 deaths per 100,000 births, so it isnt very dangerous.
It depends things like maternal health make a. Big difference. In countries with higher levels of maternal. Health they have better birth outcomes.
Human babies are similar to babies of apes that need carrying around rather than babies of prey creatures that are born ready to run (like foals) 2e are carry mammals rather than stash mammals so our babies are a little less independent.
When you look at books and evidence like how to give birth like a feminist we realise that many of 5he birthing practices of the western world take us away from the mammalian historic practices. Your cat will build a nest, and birth ina. Dark quiet corner. People are being encouraged to birth in brightly lit spaces with people coming and going in positions that close our pelvis and take us away from the dark quiet hormones of birth.
Oxytocin is a shy hormone it doesn’t like stress and noise and is why (UK) it is noted that the safest place to birth a second baby is at home, with first babies there is a minimally higher risk. It allows this oxytocin to flow and the body to do it’s job.
There is a place for the modern hospital etc in birthing but it needs revamping. When you look at the standards of evidence used in cardiology or respiratory it is blinded trials with A or B level evidence that is firmly evidence based and bias free. Many maternity practices are level D evidence with anecdotal evidence and fewer robust trials. It is hurting women and hurting babies
So, to start with, lots and lots of dogs and cows give birth in the dirt and *aren’t* fine without human intervention. Domesticated animals often do have human intervention during birth and as a result are having more successful births due to domestication. Wild animals also have a pretty atrocious “infancy mortality rate” such as it is, never mind the maternal mortality rate. So your initial premise is flawed from the start – animals do have a pretty terrible birth mortality rate; humans do as well as we do because of the communal aspect of our societies.
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